Jones Was 20 Months Old ... Then He Was 21 Months Old, or, What's Going on With Jones in December and January

So, there are only a limited amount of these monthly updates left, right?!  I feel like I have to cut it off after he turns 2 and then it'll just have to be updates on the fun and funny stuff he's saying and doing, and not a monthly report on his vital statistics.  But, until then:

In December, Jones was 20 months old!

 

 

 

At 20 months, Jones:

• Weighs between 28 and 29 pounds and wears size 18-24 months clothes, a size 5 shoe, and a size 4 diaper.  I was forced to purchase size 6 1/2 shoes for his Christmas outfit, but they are boots, and they have velcro, so I can usually get them to stay on, but they are really easy for him to take off (a favorite activity of Jones' when he's in the car seat).  His favorite pair of shoes in the whole world are his little Nikes - the girls at daycare tell me he cries when they take them off.  I don't know how tall he is, but the size 18-24 months pants are just barely long enough for him.
• Has zero interest in food, unless it's a Nutrigrain bar, or unless it's something I'm eating or drinking.  When we get home from school, the first thing he does is make a bee-line for the pantry, and he'll stand there and say, "Bar?!  Bar?!" hopefully, wanting you to get him one.  I usually try to distract him, since he gets a snack at school and we usually eat not too long after he gets home, and I'd rather him actually eat his dinner as opposed to cereal bars. Confession:  one night, I let him have two of those grab-and-go yogurts and five (that's right five:  5) mini-bananas for dinner.  What can I say?  He likes yogurt and bananas ... when I can convince him he wants to take the time to eat, he  likes silver dollar pancakes, all kinds of soups, salmon and chicken, broccoli, carrots and mashed potatoes.
• Is very chatty!  I can't understand a lot of it, but he tells you stuff with this earnest little face, and I know he is making sense to himself, so I nod along and say intelligent things like, "Oh, really?"  and "Uh-huh", and "Yes, that's right" and "Oh, yes, I see" and that seems to please him.  Favorite words:  horse, cow, Mommy, Daddy, dog, uh-oh, shoe, sock, Elmo, bye-bye, more, and milk.  He says "please" and "thank you" if you ask him to/tell him to, and it's so sweet.  At Christmas, he got everybody's name right:  Nana, PePaw, Papa, and Tee, except for Grammy.  I think the "Gr" sound might be hard for him; he hasn't really said "Grandma" or "Grandpa" yet either with Alan's parents.  We'd go around the circle and say, "Who is that?" and he got everybody right, but he would get this look on his face when it came to Grammy, and I really think it just has to be something about the word itself, not that he doesn't know who she is.  My parents' house backs up to a green space and a walking trail, and there are deer feeders set up in the back, and the deer are plentiful.  Grammy was holding Jones and some deer showed up and she asked him, "Look!  See the deer?!"  Jones replied, "Horse!"  So Grammy said, "That's a deer."  And Jones looked at her and said, very firmly, "No.  Horse!"  We all thought it was funny because you could tell he was like, "You silly person, that's a horse, of course."  Maybe he's going to be our little cowboy ...
• Likes his tricycle, but he doesn't pedal it (yet). He pushes it with his feet.  He loves the playground, and loves to climb and slide and do all of that playground-type stuff.  He likes balls of all shapes and sizes, and he loves his puzzles that make sounds when you put the correct shape in the correct slot (lots of neighing and mooing going on).  He loves to play with the dogs.  He'll get a toy and show it to them, and then they'll run through the house, with the dogs trying to get it away from him and Jones giggling the whole time.  Then they'll get the toy and he'll run after them to get it back.  It's so sweet to watch the Spoiled Labradors be good fur-siblings to Jones.

• Has starting liking cartoons!  I feel like I should probably be one of those hippie-granola people that yammers on about how TV is evil and will rot your brain, but it's such a relief that he'll watch TV for 30 minutes straight and allow me to get stuff like emptying the dishwasher, tidying up the house, folding some clothes, starting dinner, etc., and he watches fairly educational shows.  I mean, it's not like we're watching TV all of the time, or letting TV be the babysitter, so ... that's my justification :o).  He likes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, the Little Einsteins, Gaspard and Lisa, and the Backyardigans, and loves the PBS morning lineup:  Martha Speaks, Curious George, The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That, The Super Readers, Dinosaur Train, and, of course, Sesame Street ("Elmo!", which sounds like "Melmo").  He likes shows that have Sesame-Street style puppets in them, like Muppets, that kind of thing.  And he likes anything that has horses or cows in it (Lonesome Dove, seriously).

• Has a lot of teeth, but I really have no idea exactly how many!  He loves the taste of toothpaste, so he enjoys brushing his teeth ... sort of ... I give him his toothbrush with a little toothpaste on it, and he chews on it and moves it around his mouth, and then I swoop in and clean his teeth with the little finger-brush thing.  This is hazardous to my health (he bites - hard.  He's not doing it on purpose, though), but I want him to have healthy teeth, so I just sort of grin and bear it.  He likes to do a lot of his grooming on his own (or he would, if I would let him) - he likes to brush his own hair, wash his hands, wipe his nose ... I usually help him out, though :o).
• Goes to bed around 9:00 and sleeps til about 7:00 or 7:30.  He's a good sleeper!
• Is precious to our entire family!

In January, Jones was 21 months old!

At 21 months, Jones:

• Weighs between 29 and 30 pounds, wears size 18-24 months clothes, and some 2T (mostly pants), size 5 shoes, but will wear bigger shoes if you can lace them tight enough (we have a lot of 6 and 6 1/2 and that I strap on his feet and hope he doesn't pull off ... apparently, he is known at school as the child who always takes off his shoes), and a size 4 diaper. 
• Still has love for the Nutrigrain bar and not much else.  He eats really well at breakfast - he loves all breakfast foods - pancakes, sausage, eggs, Cream of Wheat, oatmeal, yogurt ... he eats all of it without complaint and he generally eats his entire serving.  Any other time - forget about it.  This kid's too busy to eat!
• Is talking a lot!  He repeats, or will attempt to repeat, pretty much anything you say.  He will repeat, "I love you" and it melts my heart, every time.  When he wants something, I'll get him to say "please" and then after I give him whatever it is (usually a Nutrigrain bar) he says, "thank you" of his own accord.  He loves to point out cars, and he likes to identify their owners - "Mama's car", "Daddy's car", "Nana's car", etc.  He loves Alan's Tahoe.  Every morning, after he gets dressed, he'll ask me, hopefully, "Daddy's car?" and I always have to tell him, "Nope, sorry - Mama's car today!"  He loves to "play car", which means he sits in the driver's seat of one of our vehicles and moves the steering wheel and presses all of the buttons and pretends to drive - perhaps he is the next Enzo Ferrari? 

• Can identify his nose, mouth, teeth, eyes, ears, and belly. 

• Gives kisses, hugs, and high-fives.
• Is, alas, entering the temper tantrum phase of life.  Right now, it's kind of funny to me and to Alan, to be honest.  The most common example I can think of right now is that he is always wanting a Nutrigrain bar from the pantry (y'all think I'm kidding, but that kid would eat a box a day if you let him).  Now, believe it or not, we do not always let him have one.  He'll run over to the pantry, say, "Bar?!  Bar?!" and when you say something along the lines of, "No, you're going to have dinner in half an hour, you don't need a cereal bar", he scrunches up his face, stamps his feet, flails his arms, and wails like his heart is breaking, with big fat tears running down his face.  It's so dramatic and, truthfully, I think it's kind of hilarious (since it's just about a cereal bar and nothing life-threatening)!  It's tough not to give in, but I certainly don't want to teach him that this behavior gets him what he wants. 
• Likes the word "no" unless you are saying it to him.  The other night, Alan told him "no" about something and he ran across the room and buried his face in the couch with a wail.  Then, he popped up and ran back to Alan and pushed/hit him with both hands and said, "No!", his little face just red and tear-streaked and pitiful looking.  We were both pretty startled by that (I've seen him do it once before, to me, in a similar circumstance) and, honestly, had to try hard not to laugh and discipline him instead.  I feel like we are constantly saying, "No, don't touch that", "No, don't do that", "No, you can't have that".  And he is taking it all in - you can actually see the wheels turning in his head - "Is it worth it for me to test this out?  I know she said no, but ..."  Lots of times, he says no just because he likes the way it sounds - you'll ask him if he wants to take a bath, for example, and he'll say no, even though he loves taking a bath.  Parenting - it's an evolving process!
• Likes his tricycle ("my bike!") and likes to be active - he'll run from one end of the house to the other and giggle all the way - he just likes being on the move!  He likes to read books and he likes to drag around his pull toys.

• Loves to play with the Spoiled Labradors, and has gotten pretty good at throwing the ball for them, which they love.
• Likes his toons, and now says, "Mouse?" hopefully, which I have determined means he wants to watch Mickey Mouse (when Mickey Mouse is not on TV at that particular moment ... well, that's a disappointment, to say the least), and any trip to the store is accompanied by pointing out all of the Elmos that he sees on everything ("Melmo!").  Alan and I had Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on the other night; I didn't think Jones was watching, since he had been playing by himself for quite awhile.  It was the very end of the movie, where evil Nazi-guy is in the room with all of the cups, and he drinks from the false grail, and he shrivels up and dies before everyone's eyes.  This is, on closer inspection, a pretty scary part of the movie, especially if you are 21 months old.  I looked over at Jones and realized he was watching the movie as the particular scene played out, and when that old guy shriveled up, his little face puckered up and he cried and cried and cried - it scared him!  I felt pretty bad about it (especially since that particular scene used to scare me when I was little too, and the one in Raiders of the Lost Ark where the people melt and there's blood and what-not going everywhere), and we've learned a lesson about having the TV on in the background.
• Is, as always, a good sleeper - down around 9:00, up around 7:00 or 7:30.
• Is my little clothes horse - I love dressing him up, like he's a baby doll :o).  He's starting to have an opinion about clothes, so I try to give him little choices - "The Wallabes or the Toms?", stuff like that.  His sneakers are still his favorite item of clothing.  He doesn't like hats, and will always take it off in the car, if he gets the opportunity.  He really wants to brush his own hair, so we have a daily struggle with the hairbrush in the morning.  His favorite article of clothing are shoes, and socks come in a close second.  He wants to put his shoes on first thing!
• Is my favorite 21-month old in the whole world!